The Humble Onion

Kitchen Witching

The humble onion. The base of every hearty stew, soup and curry. If it’s missing we’ll notice, although we might not be able to put our finger on what it is that we can’t taste. A bit of folklore tells us that if the onion skin is thin then it will be a warm winter and if it is thick then it will be a cold winter.

Onion skin, very thin,

Mild winter coming in,

Onion skin thick and tough

Coming winter cold and rough

This year the onion skins are thick, so dig out your jumpers.

Photo by Rasa Kasparaviciene on Unsplash

Onions are harvested between July and September so they would have been harvested in plenty of time for their divinatory power to be heeded and preparations made for a harsh winter.

If you want to make sure you have a good crop of onions then some say they should be planted on Ash Wednesday or Palm Sunday depending on where you are. For example, Ash Wednesday in some parts of the UK and Palm Sunday in France.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

If you are unfamiliar with the festivals of the Christian faith, Ash Wednesday is 46 days before Easter and Easter is the the Sunday after the full moon that falls after the equinox around the 21st March. Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter Sunday. This is a great examples of how Christian festivals often align with the pagan festivals and nature based faiths. It’s going to happen if ultimately they are both following the moon.